Dave Portnoy honors Wendy's deal with 24-team playoff rant

Wendy's signed up for Portnoy rants on Fox's pregame show. The show doesn't want him anymore. Wendy's got its rant anyway.

Dave Portnoy

@stoolpresidente

Here is the thing about doing business with me and @barstoolsports @Wendys signed up to get my college football rants on @BNKonFOX so I will give them my rants despite being fired. This is the only correct take on 24 team playoffs. Some people still know how to do business

Look at the backdrop. He's standing in front of a 'Bring the Beef with FOX Big Noon Kickoff' poster for a show that let him go, and he's eating the sponsor's burger on camera. That's the whole joke, and it's a pretty good one. In Portnoy's version, Barstool keeps its word to Wendy's even after Fox stopped keeping its end with him. 'Some people still know how to do business' is about as subtle as a brick through the window in Columbus.

And Columbus is where all of this comes from. Portnoy announced earlier this month that he'd been 'put on ice' from Big Noon Kickoff after more than a year on the show. He said he found out on a Thursday and that the only reason he got was 'Ohio State.' He has also said Fox executives were in Columbus when the Barstool deal was announced, and that they were shown a 30- to 45-minute tape of him trashing the Buckeyes and Ryan Day. Neither Fox nor Ohio State has answered him publicly, and The Athletic's reporting said there wasn't 1 specific reason for the timing.

Wake Up Barstool

@wakeupbarstool

“Ohio State since day one hated my guts. From day one, they said, we don't want the Barstool college football show on campus.” – Dave Portnoy

0:44

Now the playoff part. The CFP and ESPN are reportedly close to a deal that would double the field from 12 to 24 teams starting in 2027. The proposal would get rid of the Power 4 conference title games and put the first 2 rounds on campus. Portnoy had already gone after the idea on Thursday, posting that 'the college football regular season died the year Ohio State won their asterisk title as the 3rd place team in the Big 10 and lost at home as 20 pt favorites to Michigan.' So what was Saturday's 'only correct take'? If the regular season was already dead the day the Buckeyes got their ring, there's not much left for 24 teams to ruin. Whatever he says in the clip, every road leads back to Ohio State.

The timing makes it better. Ohio State plays in Bloomington this weekend in the biggest game on the Big Ten slate, and Portnoy, who has been loudly backing Curt Cignetti over Ryan Day, posted that he wished he were there.

Dave Portnoy

@stoolpresidente

I wish I could be in Bloomington. Great people. Great college town.

He'd have been part of Big Noon Kickoff's crew for a game like this. Instead he's filming selfie rants for a fast food sponsor and rooting for the Hoosiers from somewhere else. If Indiana beats Ohio State in front of its own fans, expect a victory lap that Fox won't be airing. And if the 24-team deal goes through, he'll have years of new brackets to blame on the Buckeyes.